#lvgwatch25

[aardvaark]

leverage rewatch: s1e1 "the nigerian job"

i love that nate’s very first line is threatening to punch this guy in the throat, said while day drinking alone in a bar. really sets the stage for how broken up he is at this moment.

on the opposite end, hardisons first line is insulting the tech for this heist lol. immediately clear this team is gonna be a problem (affectionate) for nate.

eliot’s first line is said to somehow both commend and mock hardison ("you’re not as useless as you look") and that is a pretty good look into their dynamic for the whole series lol.

hardison and parker’s very first on-screen interaction is hardison being enamored with her (and eliot teasing him about it) <3

hardison telling eliot "i don’t even know what you do" is a fun little line because it starts to show how much the team actually know about each other before this heist. like, nate knows a decent amount about all of them, and they know a bit about nate. but hardison knows nothing about eliot, and eliot’s (previously mentioned) first line also implies that if he does know anything about hardison, it’s probably not much either. im gonna elaborate on this in a separate post before i get off track lol.

parker’s first *mention* comes before she’s actually on screen, when nate is looking through the files of the team he’s gonna work with and says that "parker is insane". people have pointed this out a bunch of times before but this is a really perfect first mention of her because we will spend most of her arc throughout the series showing that this isn’t really true! by season five, she’ll get to finally "respond" to that introduction of hers - "they said i was crazy, but i never was. i never was". and it’s really interesting to see nate go from being the person who calls her insane to fully trusting her with leading the team when he’s gone.

i still think about the giant sheet of glass that parker lets fall to the ground in the first heist lol. are the people on the street okay

also love the "why the f-" [cut off] line that parker gets. i think that's the closest we get to one of the main characters saying fuck?

nate calling them children in the first episode. ironic for a guy who did NOT set out to be a father figure to these weird criminals who are gonna follow him around for the next five years.

parker being the one to introduce the chess metaphor my beloved <3 shes very perceptive! and she also just knows that "crime is fun" and nate's bound to enjoy it lol.

hospital scene from the extended pilot <3 how come eliot's chained to a chair instead of a bed like the rest of them? anyway, i wish more people watched the extended pilot because in the season 1 finale when eliot shoves the hard hat on hardison's head, you should know that he's getting petty revenge for when hardison shoved eliot's head into the roof of the cop car in this scene.

nate saying there's "payback, and if it goes right, a lot of money" for eliot and "a lot of money, and if it goes right, payback" for parker, he's got their (current) motivations nailed already.

parker and hardison being like "yeah sure lets go get whatever a 'sophie' is" vs eliot asking lol. but he also evidently follows regardless. yeah thats pretty much how nate's gonna be, sorry eliot, you'll get used to this.

i find nate and sophie's first scenes so sweet. he watches her terrible acting but from his expression you'd think she was gonna win an oscar. and when she sees him in that alley, she's trying to continue being the cool and mysterious femme fatale but she's clearly so happy underneath - he came and found her! he sought her out! he's playing her side now, and that changes everything! (and one day soon she'll realise - oh shit, this changes everything. but tonight she's just over the moon). i know they're very much not the fan favourites, but u gotta admit that their interactions in the pilot... chefs kiss!!

in the next scene at hardison's apartment, (btw, rip hardison's awesome pilot apartment which we never see again), sophie is dressed down and intently listening and taking notes which is fairly unusual for her. but not out of character necessarily - when she mentors parker in grifting later, she encourages parker to take handwritten notes.

"that's an odd thing for you to know" "that's an odd place for you to be" (eliot and sophie's lines). he picks up on her suspicious knowledge and she challenges him right back. and he immediately knows to only trust sophie about as far as he can throw her.

i wish we got to see a little of sophie meeting the others! but there's no time and it would be an unnecessary scene. i like that their introduction to sophie was her awful acting though, because that will always be their first impression - not of an incredible grifter, but of a much sillier and more genuine version of sophie than we otherwise see for most of season one.

parker laughing at hardison's joke is also adorable.

no comments on the eliot + nate pool table scene, because @laser-tripwires has already written an incredible analysis of that interaction here. :) !!

actually the only thing i will mention is eliot saying that they all know about nate's kid dying - that's very important. nate wouldn't want them to know his vulnerabilities. even if they just pity him... well to him, that might be worse.

eliot saying "incoming" about sophie walking over is also really funny to me. referring to her like she's something dangerous, and he's joking but he's not wrong!

okay where did sophie get the "black king, white knight" line from? she was not there when parker said that. maybe everyone speaks in chess metaphors in the leverage Crime World.

[aardvaark]

leverage rewatch: s1e5 "the mile high job"

hardison's iconic microwave burrito sequence while a heist goes down lol

i love that he waters the plant too. i assume it's parker's plant and he's been watering it because she definitely wouldn't think to do that. the commentaries said they planned to have a running joke about it (but didn't end up progressing it much) with the eventual punchline being hardison realizing it's a fake plant lmao.

hardison going through nate's computer (and nate somehow sensing this) is so good. they know each other too well already.

i love that they really just let parker's abilities be unexplained. like yeah we're not gonna say how she disappeared and then reappeared two rooms away - she's parker.

soph and nate being the world's most divorced couple that have never actually dated <3

flight attendant!parker is one of my fave grifts she ever does. "jet fuel burns at over a thousand degrees! that's hot, folks."

and hardison having his entire own subplot in this episode, making up a grift as he goes (successfully!), i absolutely love it. he really is a genius and this whole episode proves it.

parker: "the guy in 1-D wants to kill you. ginger ale?"

hardison: "let's not fight... especially not on my birthday!" hardison im obsessed with you and your quick yet effective grifts <3333

fight scene in an airplane bathroom is hilarious and pretty impressive they managed to choreograph anything in that space

parker: "erlick? the guy we just took out?" eliot, blood dripping down his forehead: -_- parker: "...the guy eliot just took out?"

love that when the team needs info about how someone would get murdered by professional murderers, they all just kinda turn and look at eliot lol. guy who killed people might have info on killing.

nate: "listen to me: you can do this. i trust you. no matter how many times you goof off or screw up, you always come through in the clutch. you're the only guy i can count on in a situation like this." it really shows a) how incredible hardison is and b) how much nate already recognizes this after doing just a handful of jobs with hardison so far.

beth riesgraf clearly throwing herself around to mimic turbulence is always funny to me. just diving on a pile of suitcases.

aww i didn't realize until now that after the emergency landing is done and everyone's okay, eliot hugs the passenger next to him. that's nice. that all would've been absolutely terrifying.

hardison: "i gave my heart and soul to this is company and this is how you repay me? and on my BIRTHDAY!"

WAIT WAIT im just watching the end where they're back at hq and parker's wearing a jacket over her flight attendant uniform, and i was thinking "where did that come from, it's almost definitely not part of the uniform because it's either black or dark gray and the uniform is much lighter gray"... and then hardison walks in without the jacket (and tie) he'd been wearing at genogrow all day! did he give her his jacket???? stop they're so cute!!! though she's still pissed at him lol, it's been one hell of a long day.

[aardvaark]

leverage rewatch: s1e6 "the miracle job"

its cute that they're all being invited to sophie's plays apparently, though clearly it's not so much as invitation as it is an obligation lol. but it's cute she wants them there and they all go and try to pretend it was good. i mean, parker says "it was like a horror movie" lmao but that seems to be her attempt at praising it.

eliot saying that sophie's play was THE worst night of his life, including times he was actually tortured, is always hilarious to me.

the first maggie mention!! she's the one who calls nate to tell him that his priest friend paul is in hospital.

nate thinking he has to convince the team to take the case (since it's kinda a personal favor to a friend after all), but they're all very much in already! they're well and truly past needing to be convinced. and we're only at ep 6. compare this to the wedding job, ep 3, when nate doesn't want to take the job and they all (besides sophie) want to bail partway through.

eliot being excited to take hardison to face a gang. "let's get you out in some fresh air. get you off the computer. come on!". love that his argument is that getting into a fight would be good for hardison's health.

hardison: i rappelled! did no one see me rappel?? sophie: i heard about it. on the one hand she's saying that to soothe him, which seems sweet, but on the other hand, she's likely only doing that to encourage him to leave with eliot to face that gang lol. this season especially, many of her nice gestures tend to be either a little manipulative or shallow. which just makes sense - she's spent her life looking out only for herself, ultimately alone no matter how many people are around her. her default mode is to manipulate people into what she wants them to do, without even thinking about whether that's necessary or hurtful. it's just her job. it's gonna take a lot more than six episodes to change a lifetime of ingrained beliefs about other people and the world.

hardison gets to punch someone!! not only does he notice the guy's shoulder being off, he also knows it's dislocated, where nate just sad it was "messed up". i love seeing hardison apply his intelligence to problems outside hacking, cause it really goes to show how he's so quick-thinking and a genius in any situation.

for the record, gina bellman spent her early childhood in aotearoa, so i can only assume she's doing a decent job of the kiwi accent.

also i love when sophie looks all offended when the marks don't immediately play into her con lol, even though she's well aware this mark would likely brush her off - that's the whole point of setting up the elevator con. but she still makes this face like "uh! wowww, rude," lol.

who let parker choose the drugs to give this guy lmao?? like of course she laced them with speed, that's on the rest of the team for assuming she'd stick to just caffeine. when has she ever done anything by halves?

and that pays off a few mins later when nate says "parker, i need you to go to the hospital and keep father paul there no matter what [pause] up to a point" lol. he's learning. doesn't help that she has the most evil grin ever when he says that lmao.

and THEN it immediately turns out that parker took his words as permission to poke the priest with needles and take his blood. i wonder what she did with his blood...

hardison being able to make those fake statues too! he is ridiculously talented.

sophie having to remind nate that he never actually cheated on maggie is a little funny to me. and he's saying he was tempted and acting like he did something terrible and she's just like "dude i was there". but that scene's also so very bittersweet cause at this point she really is just waiting for him and here she tells him not to take too long, and, well...

i like how the actor playing this week's mark really takes the comic evil to its logical extreme. he looks feverish almost, in a frenzy. and the team has psychologically destroyed him and he's STILL coming up with new plans for bibletopia, probably the most capitalist hellscape christian-flavored invention imaginable. on that note, i also liked the priest and his arguments with nate, which you can tell comes from frustration with wanting to help a grieving, depressed friend who won't help himself. good guests this episode.

"it's the vatican" *parker, hardison & eliot immediately disappear*. i love the little implication there that they've each wronged the holy see at some point, enough to run off.

okay 1) the team using the confessional as a hiding spot, love it, and 2) parker refers to the confessional as "that closet" lol. apparently she knows that zeus is a god who strikes people down with lightning, but she doesn't know what a confessional is. i love how it's pretty much impossible to predict what things are within her realm of knowledge.

parker as an angel!

i LOVE the arc that the mark's assistant, tomas, has over the course of this episode. yes, good, take down your boss!!

sophie dropping the accent! god that really makes her scary. it's like she's saying, "just to be clear, the last few days have been a complete and utter lie, and there's no one who's got your back".

i like the way the team all watch nate light a candle (something catholics do for the dead), sincerely sombre. probably partly feeling for nate, partly thinking of their own grief. parker watches especially carefully, and takes a big breath in like she's overwhelmed. makes me think of how she suppresses her grief over her brother and so much loss she's experienced in her life.

eliot seems to put a hand on nate's shoulder as they exit the church. he also knows a thing or two about grief.

[aardvaark]

leverage rewatch: s1e2 "the homecoming job"

ah yes, the title i always get mixed up with "the reunion job". my brain goes "homecoming" -> some american high school thingy -> probably that episode at a high school right? but no, this is the very pro-military episode that every american tv show seemingly has to do at least once lol smh

i love sophie’s audition scene. weirdly i actually guessed that it would be for some kind of cleaning commercial when i was first watching (she’s dramatically saying "i want to be cleannnn!" but i was thinking "hm, yes, ‘clean’, i bet this is a joke about an overly dramatic reading of a cleaning product ad". and then they revealed it was about soap). which probably speaks to the weird way my brain works, but fortunately my brain is apparently in sync with how leverage works lol. p.s. is the fact it’s a "soap ad" and she’s acting melodramatic a joke about soap opera style acting?

also re: her terrible audition scene, leverage creator john rogers has a cameo as the casting guy.

and third thing about that scene (wow i’m 3 mins in and already off track) i do love watching comedic sophie scenes. like her delivery of "peggy killed her first husband" (peggy being the character in the ad about soap) lmaoooo. this scene reminds me of gina bellman’s character in another show, "coupling" - personally wasn’t a show i enjoyed, but i could appreciate how funny she was.

the guy eliot punched in the throat still falling to the ground while he answers the phone lol.

the idea that parker a) doesn’t have her phone on silent/turned off/away from her during a heist and b) that she would answer the phone during a heist even when a security guard is around, is very funny to me. and she still gets away evidently, so apparently that’s also a completely valid choice for her to make.

sophie saying "don’t you trust us?" to eliot & laughing about it lol. next season she’ll be a bit genuinely offended that eliot doesn’t fully trust her, but she doesn’t know it yet.

hardison’s old nate painting!!!!! iconic. and hardison really is gifted.

"short version or long version?" "short" "short" "shortest" pshhhh poor hardison

first time eliot says "it’s a very distinctive…"

first time hardison gets pushed off a roof (actually, sophie is the first to get pushed off something against her will by parker, which happens in the pilot episode)

i like how sophie’s voice changes a little, even when her grift alias is also british, even when she doesn’t really *need* to do a different voice. there’s still very much a baseline Sophie Voice and then many other voices for each ‘character’ she does. which gives the impression that the Sophie Voice is also just another fake accent (& technically that’s true according to john rogers - in the beantown bailout job, when sophie’s fighting the guys who attack nate in his apartment, her accent changes a bit and apparently that’s supposed to be a hint at her real voice).

when nate’s acting up and eliot says they’ll just finish this job and split up again, they all agree but look so disappointed and sad :( only known each other for a couple of jobs so far but none of them really want it to be over.

it’s adorable that hardison & nate watch parker’s theft. with popcorn, might i add. nate specifically walks over to watch and asks if she’s started yet. it’s sweet that he seems to find parker’s work sincerely impressive, i guess he’s spent years tracking her down and it makes sense that he’d see all the skill that goes into making the theft of something so major (literally stealing a law!) look so effortless.

parker being able to sense that money is real vs counterfeit lmao.

eliot, smiling sarcastically: "hey, what do you got going on? you and hardison? what is it, like a creepy contest??" lol. and hardison looking annoyed vs parker still smiling (she’s having the best day ever bc she found so so much cash)

parker’s "i bought a plant" (bc hardison suggested it earlier) is soooooo adorable i love that moment so much <333 she doesn’t seem to quite know how to say it, she just blurts it out, but he gets it. he’s always understood. agh my heart!!

nate buying a t*sla lol - godddd it meant something very different back then

them all being surprised at the car for 0.0001 seconds before agreeing it’s a midlife crisis and making fun of nate again. love this family.

[aardvaark]

leverage rewatch: s1e3 "the wedding job"

to be clear i’m following the intended order rather than the airing order.

i like the idea that sophie is maintaining a cover but the friends she makes are being wronged by the mob. like she really cannot escape Crime World!

parker teaching the client’s daughter to pick locks is still so funny. i love all of their reactions to it, too. everyone’s kinda in disbelief/shocked and nate is just watching like "i mean, that tracks… why would you let parker be alone with a kid if you didn’t want the kid to learn lock picking".

"do you have any idea how hard it it to wait for someone?" (- sophie to nate). aw soph </3 she’s very serious too, might be a little for manipulation but she’s also saying something a bit more raw and true than we tend to get from her this early on.

the first parker & hardison fbi agent con, and first episode with the two recurring fbi agents!!

hardison: punch somebody! / eliot: oh, i’m gonna punch somebody. // lmaoooooo

parker suggesting "we could tunnel from the neighbours" - i don’t think ive appreciated how funny that is before lol. and now im wondering if she’s actually done that.

first mention of eliot being good at cooking (and abandoning his actual heist-related tasks to prepare food)

this ep is probably the one with the strongest "never dated but also somehow divorced" vibe from nate and sophie. she’s offended by him being very un-romantic and he looks like he feels a bit bad about that, which is kinda funny when you remember that they’re not in a relationship and have never been in a relationship. obviously from how they interact, it’s clear they’re both interested in each other and they’re in this odd space where they’re not dating but are pretty clearly not going to date anyone else. i guess it’s just like sophie said, she’s been waiting for him, and he knows that.

it always gets me how the mother of the bride is wearing a white dress that could very easily be used as a wedding dress. eeeevil.

"is this about fear of the russian mob or fear of intimacy?" is probably one of sophie’s funniest lines ever lmao. this episode in general is probably the most comedy-heavy of season one, it’s always a fun rewatch.

i know eliot didn’t actually kill that guy (with an appetizer) but it’s interesting that in these early episodes, the show doesn’t really seem to care much about eliot not killing people.

parker and hardison are so adorable in this episode <333 when he says how beautiful she looks in the silly bridesmaid dress. when her improvised lie for why she’s in the screaming room is that she was gonna meet hardison(‘s grift alias) to have sex. parker telling hardison that little fact and his reaction is very funny.

eliot cooking for everyone!! eliot would hate me for the "pasta" i made before watching this episode lol. it’s two minute noodles (water drained out & seasoning not added) + diced tomato + lemon juice + tuna + pepper + off-the-shelf spice mix (with chilli powder so it’s spicy). which is basically gourmet cooking when you’re a uni student sooooo.

[aardvaark]

leverage rewatch: s1e4 "the snow job"

oof the nate flashback to sam dying. that really is a painful watch every single time.

"he doesn’t oversleep. this guys sets an alarm to set his alarm" - eliot describing nate.

parker’s fortune cookie breakfast. iconic.

you can see them all (besides nate) dying a little inside when sophie has to rip up that cheque. eek!

this is a very early episode and you can really tell - eg eliot not only assuming that he has to catch parker when she’s jumped out the window, but also assuming that she assumes that he would catch her. she didn’t hesitate to jump out a second floor window, what makes you think she needs to have her fall broken? i guess this is eliot’s first proper encounter with parker’s whole immunity-to-fall-damage thing lol.

i like sophie and eliot’s … friendship? bonding? ish … moments in this episode. eliot finding it funny when it turns out they have to hang around randy (the first mark) longer than expected, bc randy’s under the impression that they’re flirting and sophie’s gonna have to keep that act up, much to her chagrin. but then later, sophie absolutely beaming when eliot has to gruffly admit that he dated a neurologist bc everyone’s staring at him. they both delight in each others minor misfortunes. true friendship!

why does sophie know parker’s father is dead? (she tells parker to think of something sad, like "when your father died"). we don’t learn that parker’s an orphan until stork job, and sophie seemed reasonably surprised to hear that. maybe parker had already mentioned that her parents were dead and in stork job, sophie was just surprised to hear parker allude to her childhood in abusive/neglectful foster care placements? or maybe sophie’s disturbingly accurate ability to make inferences about people’s lives led her to realise that parker’s dad was dead somehow?

speaking of the above scene - it’s also very clear that sophie and parker haven’t known each other long, cause in later seasons, sophie wouldn’t broach a sensitive topic with parker like that. eg in grave danger job, sophie only makes an allusion to parker having lost ppl in childhood, and seems to know she’s kinda pushing it even then. (though soph’s talking about acting here, so she’s probably too caught up in that to think about being gentle lol).

"i have a tell? in rock paper scissors?" (hardison to eliot) lmao

parker running into the corridor when nate cuts the mark a cheque is so funny. and eliot literally picking her up and whisking her away.

episode 4 and nate's already well and truly pissing everyone off with his drinking! parker and eliot express that anger directly. sophie's equal parts sad and angry. hardison's a bit angry too but mostly trying to fix things and gets quiet when nate gets meaner.

nate very intentionally provoking eliot is hard to watch. and we dont usually see eliot get physically threatening with the team, not like here when he stands up quick and marches over to nate.

and nate doesn't react. everyone else does - sophie quickly stands up and gets between eliot and nate, hardison is watching this with his eyes wide in disbelief, parker's off screen but a few moments later when she's about to leave, she stops in front of sophie and looks between her and nate for a moment (which... it's painful in the context of her childhood/backstory). but nate, he doesn't react. he's been provoking eliot, he continues provoking eliot, he doesn't care that he's hurting others and he doesn't care about what happens as a consequence. but of course he doesn't care, in his mind nothing matters when his only son is dead.

anyway, its interesting since eliot's worked with nate pre-leverage (and pre-sam's death) and would know more than most about exactly how much nate's changed in terms of taking these big risks, putting his team on the line, etc.

nate: "you know me. i can do this." sophie: "i knew you two years ago." nate: "well, i'm still the same person." sophie: "no. you're not." nate: [pause] "no, i'm not." aurrghhhh this scene hurts so much!!! she's really starting to see that this can't work, not the way he is (or how they both are) right now. that he's not the person she remembers, who he was before sam died, or the idealized person she made up in her mind.

now you see if i was nate i simply would not do anything that could ruin my chances with sophie. i mean look at her big brown eyes, how could u ever be uncaring to her??

one of the most satisfying take-downs of a mark this season i think. they take the money, the company, even the mark's house, are able to return ownership to the roughly 400 families that the marks had taken houses from, and even give their giant house to the person who initially contacted the team.

[aardvaark]

im rewatching leverage so prepare for Thoughts TM for the millionth time!! as always, feel free to blacklist the tag "#leverageposting" if you don’t want to see my leverage posts. and i’m gonna tag the posts specifically about this watch through as "#lvgwatch25" (leverage watch, 2025) so you can blacklist that too if you like regular leverage content but get sick of my watch through posts lol.

im gonna try to specifically make note of character relationships, references to their pasts, and also intertextual references & allusions. why? who knows. my level of obsession with this show needs to be studied. but hopefully references to their individual pasts might actually be useful notes for other fans, like things they’ve canonically stolen and places they’ve canonically been etc. noting intertextuality is purely me geeking out over film & genre stuff but hey, maybe some of the stuff i list will be fun movie recommendations for leverage fans!